Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — The U.S. grasped for help yesterday from both adversaries and uneasy allies in an
effort to catch National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. The White House demanded he be
denied asylum, blasted China for letting him go and urged Russia to “do the right thing” and send
him back to America to face espionage charges.

Snowden was believed to be in Russia, where he fled Sunday after weeks of hiding in Hong Kong
following his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified counterterror surveillance
programs. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans’ phone records and worldwide online data
in the name of national security.

Snowden had flown from Hong Kong to Russia, and was expected to fly early yesterday to Havana
and then on to Ecuador, where he has applied for asylum. But he didn’t get on the plane from
Moscow, and his exact whereabouts were unclear.

Aeroflot Flight SU150 to Havana was filled with journalists trying to track down Snowden. Two AP
journalists on the flight confirmed after it arrived last night in Havana that Snowden wasn’t in
the seat, 17A, assigned to him.

A member of the Aeroflot crew spoke briefly to reporters gathered outside Havana’s Jose Marti
International Airport. “No special people on board,” he said, smiling. “Only journalists.”

The founder of WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling organization that has embraced Snowden, said the
American is only passing through Russia on his way to somewhere where he can avoid U.S.
authorities. Julian Assange said Snowden had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly
other countries.

The White House said Hong Kong’s refusal to detain Snowden had “unquestionably” hurt relations
between the U.S. and China. While Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy from the rest of China,
experts said Beijing probably orchestrated Snowden’s exit in an effort to remove an irritant in
Sino-U.S. relations.

President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met earlier this month in California to
smooth over rough patches in the countries’ relationship, including allegations of hacking into
each other’s computer systems.

Secretary of State John Kerry urged Moscow to “do the right thing” and turn over Snowden.

Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, was pointed regarding China.

“The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust,” he said. “And we think
that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. … This was a deliberate choice by the
government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably
has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship.”

Snowden has told the
South China Morning Post that “the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese
cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data.”

U.S. intelligence agencies are worried they do not yet know how much highly sensitive material
is in Snowden’s possession.

The agencies fear that Snowden may have taken many more documents than officials initially
estimated and that his alliance with Assange increases the likelihood that they will be made public
without considering the security implications, they said.

The U.S. government’s dual lines of diplomacy — harsh with China, hopeful with the Russians —
came just days after Obama met separately with leaders of both countries in an effort to close gaps
on some of the major disputes facing them. Additionally, State Department spokesman Patrick
Ventrell said the U.S. has made demands to “a series of governments,” including Ecuador, that
Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S.

Ventrell said he did not know if that included Iceland. Icelandic officials have confirmed
receiving an informal request for asylum conveyed by WikiLeaks, which has strong links to the tiny
North Atlantic nation. But authorities there have insisted that Snowden must be on Icelandic soil
before making a formal request.

Ecuador’s president and foreign minister declared that national sovereignty and universal
principles of human rights, not U.S. prodding, would govern any decision that nation might make on
granting asylum to Snowden.

Ecuador has rejected some previous U.S. efforts at cooperation and has been helping Assange
avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London.

American experts said the U.S. will have limited, if any, influence to persuade governments to
turn over Snowden if he heads to Cuba or nations in South America.

“There’s little chance Ecuador would give him back,” said James F. Jeffrey, a former ambassador
and career diplomat.

Steve Saltzburg, a former senior Justice Department prosecutor, said it’s little surprise that
China refused to hand over Snowden, and he predicted Russia won’t either.

“We’ve been talking the talk about how both these countries abuse people who try to express
their First Amendment rights, so I think that neither country is going to be very inclined to help
us very much,” said Saltzburg, now a law professor at George Washington University in Washington,
D.C.

Snowden had been believed to have been in a transit area in Moscow’s airport, where he would not
be considered as entering Russian territory. Assange declined to discuss where Snowden was but said
he was safe.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that congressional leaders he
briefed in 2004 on one of the surveillance programs supported it, and that both Republicans and
Democrats wanted to keep it secret.